


All Birds Have Their Wings

by CasVogel



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Bird/Human Hybrids, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Gen, Mild Language, Mystery, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22874869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasVogel/pseuds/CasVogel
Summary: Life in the Underground City isn't easy, but it gets a bit easier when you can fly.Levi knows this well, as he and his close friends, almost like family, not only have the gift to fly, but can become birds -the symbols of Freedom.





	All Birds Have Their Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Please see my notes at the end, if you don't mind.

My leg muscles were hurting. Starting to burn. I was running. And barely fast enough.

I knew they were chasing me. They wanted me dead, but I wasn’t afraid. And why should I be? I could escape whenever I wanted, although in the darkness it was harder to see where I was going, so I had to keep moving. Even though here, in the Underground City, it was alway somewhat dark, it must’ve been real late on the surface. But I couldn’t tell and I didn’t care. Down here time stopped in its tracks.

The group of people behind me, all three of them, were getting closer. The tallest man in the group leaped to tackle me and his filthy hands grabbed at my sore legs and brought us both down. We struggled and fought over the rolled papers in my hand, tied with a darkened red ribbon. In the pages was something that could be only described as valuable. Useless to me, certainly the same for them, and the most important thing ever to someone else.

He grabbed the papers and started to run off, but I wasn’t going to let him get away that easily. I started to feel the Transformation taking place, but no matter how many times I did this it never got much easier. While the Transformation itself was quick and simple, it always gave me a bad feeling, like anxiousness in the bottom of your stomach for no good reason. It always did that, to me, and to the others.

Shrouded by a dim glow of light, my limbs started to shrink and grow dark feathers, my face grew to a beak, and a diamond-shaped tail emerged from the base of my spine. In the blink of an eye I wasn’t human, I was a raven.

I spread my large black wings and flew over their heads. All three men stopped in shock as I chased after them in my new form. I flew past them and let out a mocking “Caw caw!” and landing on a nearby light pole, I sat to watch and see what they would do next. The shortest -and ugliest- of the three looked around, desperate to find the normal human he was once chasing. When he _finally_ realized I wasn’t around, he panicked and tried to run. The third man, who looked like the leader, who had managed to stay out of the conflict, stepped forward.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His deep voice echoed in the twilit street.

“I-You never told me that kid was a bird! How can a human, a child, even do that?!” _Tch, they always think that._

“It’s just a bird!” his superior replied, “You can get that thing, can’t you?”

“Well, pigeons are hard to catch. Have you ever tried to catch a pigeon?”

They were distracted, this was my best chance to get the papers back. I quickly flew down from my perch to get back what was mine but before I could there was a flash of brown as a sparrow got there first. Luckily, it was a friend. Isabel. She was struggling to stay in the air with the weight of the documents, but let out a celebratory chirping tune out nonetheless. She couldn’t tell she wasn’t far away or high enough off the ground yet, and the tallest man jumped up and grabbed at her out of the air, his fingers scratching her tail feathers. I swooped back towards him, claws out, and flew into his face. That really got those bastards running. People always got scared when I did this. I glared back at Isabel, for her carelessness, but couldn’t hold it. She was a little shaken, but happy enough to have the papers back.

We took off back towards the place we called home. Or one of the places, at least. As birds there were more hidden nooks and crannies available, and we stayed in one that I kept clean towards the top of the cavernous city. I knew Furlan, another friend, would be waiting for us.

You could say I liked scaring people, or simply towering over others, and I did, but being able to fly came with advantages: Freedom. Being able to become the creature that symbolizes freedom itself was something I could hardly believe, and something I would never take for granted.

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! My first published AoT fanfic, I hope you enjoyed it, there's more to come.
> 
> For now it's a good General fic with no ships, but that and other things may change with the course of the story. I will update tags accordingly.


End file.
